Considered to be the pioneers of 3D animation in films, Pixar Is the animation studio behind some of Disney’s biggest hits including The Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. A subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, Pixar continues to lead from the front with its stunningly realistic and in-depth animations.
These hyper-realistic animations are made possible as a result of the combination of the right elements, including the right kind of software. The 3D animation software Pixar uses to create these animations is propriety animation system Presto, a successor of the initially used Menv. For rendering Pixar uses RenderMan, a photorealistic 3D rendering in-house software.
Are these Softwares Commercially Available?
Acquiring the same animation softwares that are used by Pixar would be a dream come true for every animator out there. The good news here is that this dream is partially achievable. Pixar has made RenderMan available to third parties for commercial use as a licensed product.
However, Pixar has not made Presto available for commercial use. The reason behind this may be the studio’s desire to safe keep the competitive edge it has over the 3D animation industry. One factor that may also be counted in is the fact that it would be impossible for the team of developers to provide apt customer support to its buyers in case Presto is made commercially available.
Price of RenderMan Software
The animation giant has made RenderMan available free of cost for non-commercial usage. This includes its use for personal projects, evaluations, research, and educational purposes. The free version is fully functional and available without a watermark. The user is however required to give rendering credits to the software and specific rendering engines such as XPU and stylized looks are not available in the free version.
For its use in commercial projects, the price per license amounts to $595. It also offers payment and price packages for larger requirements. Both floating and node-locked licenses are available.
The Best Alternative for 3D Animation
Since Presto isn’t available to the general public and in all probability will never be, there are other software alternatives that can be used.
Maya by Autodesk is the next best thing to Presto in the 3D animation industry. The fact that Pixar worked in collaboration with Autodesk to produce Presto speaks volumes about the capabilities of the software corporation. From modeling to shading, animation, and rendering, everything is limitless owing to the great poly tools Maya has.
The software has very dynamic animation features, which give it the ability to create super realistic effects. The presence of an integrated rendering tool makes it easier for animators to view scene changes in real time, making the process of learning animation rendering easier.
While Blender is also a popular choice amongst animators, there’s no denying that it is just quite not at the Maya level yet. Since Presto is out of reach for the animators as of yet, to create animations almost as stunning as the ones made by Pixar, Maya is an animator’s best bet till Presto is made available commercially.
